<h2><center><span style="color:#866F45";>About the Collections</span></center></h2>
<p>Special Collections at the Wolf Law Library include a number of rare book collections from which items are selected to exhibit. In-person consultations for items in these collections are available by appointment only. Please contact <a href="mailto:lktesar@wm.edu"><span style="color:#115740;"><strong>Linda Tesar</strong></span></a> for more information.</p>
<h3><span style="color:#866F45";>General Rare Books Collection</span></h3>
<p>Items in the general collection cover a wide range of topics, from the first printed edition of the first English law treatise to presentation volumes inscribed by some of the greatest legal scholars of the twentieth century. The <a href="https://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rare-books/marshallbible/index.php"><span style="color:#115740";><strong>family Bible of Chief Justice John Marshall</strong></span></a> from this collection is on permanent display in the <a href="https://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rare-books/index.php"><span style="color:#115740;"><strong>Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room</strong></span></a>.</p>
<h3><span style="color:#866F45";>Armistead Collection</span></h3>
<p>Armistead Family Law Library (ca. 1830-1980), presented to the William & Mary Law School by the Hon. Robert T. Armistead</p>
<p>The Armistead Law Collection is comprised primarily of nineteenth-century American law books and legal materials assembled by the Armistead family during their many years of residence in Williamsburg. The Armistead family has a long association with the College of William & Mary and its Law School. This collection offers a unique opportunity to examine the working library of a nineteenth-century lawyer practicing in Virginia. The many handwritten annotations throughout these volumes offer legal historians valuable insight into how law developed and was practiced in Virginia prior to 1900.</p>
<h3><span style="color:#866F45";>Harris Collection</span></h3>
<p>Donated by Stephen D. Harris, J.D. '67</p>
<p>Similar to the Armistead Collection, the Harris Collection represents the library of a general practice lawyer, active in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Items in this collection came primarily from Roanoke, Gloucester, and Lancaster Counties in Virginia. The Harris Collection is on permanent display in the Wolf Law Library next to Study Room J. Our corresponding <a href="https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/exhibit/harris-collection/"><span style="color:#115740";><strong>digital exhibit</strong></span></a> provides more details about its contents.</p>
<h3><span style="color:#866F45";>Thomas Jefferson Collection</span></h3>
<p>Purchased through the generosity of Daniel W. Baran and Lena Stratton Baran (Class of 1936)</p>
<p>Begun as a part of the Bicentennial celebration in the mid-1970s, the Jefferson Collection is intended to replicate the law library offered to Congress by Thomas Jefferson after the original Library of Congress was destroyed during the War of 1812. To date, through generous book and fund donations from alumni, the Wolf Law Library has been able to acquire more than two hundred of these works.</p>
<h3><span style="color:#866F45";>Lapidus Collection</span></h3>
<p>Donated by Sid Lapidus, former member of the Omohundro Institute's Board of Directors</p>
<p>Items in this collection relate to the development of the common law, particularly towards the close of the Elizabethan era. They also illuminate the work of law and lawyers in America's early years, when the law was being shaped to support a colonial society. The Wolf Law Library based its exhibit, <a href="http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/british-and-colonial-antecedents/books-pivotal-to-virginia-law.php"><span style="color:#115740";><strong>British and Colonial Antecedents of American Liberties</strong></span></a> (October 2019-March 2020), on the <a href="http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/british-and-colonial-antecedents/lapidus.php"><span style="color:#115740";><strong>Lapidus Collection donations</strong></span></a>.</p>
<h3><span style="color:#866F45";>George Wythe Collection</span></h3>
<p>George Wythe (1726-1806), William & Mary's - and America's - first law professor, assembled one of the most important libraries in eighteenth-century Virginia. Wythe's collection included Western classics, history, philosophy, science, mathematics, and law. These books had a direct impact on the development of Virginia law and the law of the new nation. In 2005 the Wolf Law Library began a project to replicate Wythe's library, originally focusing on items of a legal nature but now reflecting the breadth of Wythe's interests. The George Wythe Room houses this collection of almost 400 of the roughly 500 titles. For more details on Wythe, his library, and his life, visit <a href="http://lawlibrary.wm.edu/wythepedia/index.php/Main_Page"><span style="color:#115740";><strong>Wythepedia: The George Wythe Encyclopedia</strong></span></a>.</p>